150 Years Ago Today at Petersburg: March 15, 1865

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton replies to Ulysses S. Grant, telling him the portion of the 45th United States Colored Troops at Washington has already been ordered to the front.

Second Cavalry Division commander Brigadier Henry E. Davies, Jr. informs Meade that the bridge over Warwick Swamp carrying the Jerusalem Plank Road and the bridge over Lee’s Mill to the east have both been destroyed, the first taken up and the second burned.

General Longstreet, with Pickett’s division and three batteries of artillery, is blindly feeling for Sheridan’s Union cavalry near Ashland, Virginia, unable to find his swifter Union opponent without Fitz Lee’s cavalry. Longstreet begs Richard Ewell in Richmond to forward Fitz Lee’s cavalry division as soon as possible.

The officers of the 48th Georgia ask to bring their companies up to strength with slaves, writing that nearly all of the enlisted men agree with the plan. They hope to enlist Blacks who are familiar with the members of the 48th in order to produce the best result. Generals Edward L. Thomas, Cadmus Wilcox, and Henry Heth all approve this request with little further comment, but Robert E. Lee suggests that the White troops be consolidated into six companies, and four Black companies be added to the organization, rather than mixing the races.

Note: All “Today In The Petersburg Campaign” blog entries are used with permission from Ronald A. Mosocco’s Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War per the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. Order the book HERE.